Atheist myth # 2...?

Question

"Atheists have not thought much about their stance on the question of God, or they would believe."

Fellow atheists, did you dismiss the notion of god without careful consideration? If you deconverted from a religion... same question?

Answer 1

Nope!

I was raised Lutheran and had to go to church every Sunday for 20 years. I might have only embraced atheism this year, but I've been headed down this path for the last ten or fifteen years. I've questioned the faith I was born into for years.

I didn't just up and say; "I'm bored. I think I'm gonna be an atheist." Not with my family, as religious as they are. They'd disown me if they knew, so I wouldn't do something like try to follow a religion "just for kicks".

Where I grew up, atheists have this image of being angry, hateful, bible-burning weirdos. Obviously not true, but that's what people in my small hometown THINK they're about.

As a teen when I REALLY started questioning things, I was afraid of not so much living like that sort of stereotype as I'm not the sort of person who would do such a thing, but rather, being associated with the stereotype. I was afraid of people in my hometown thinking that if I didn't believe in God like everyone else, I was rebellious or doing things like drugs or sleeping around or who knows what.

I tried forcing myself to believe for a time. Didn't work. I also tried just attending services and paying lip service to God just to shut my family up, keep up appearances, and limit family strife that came about whenever I didn't go. Didn't work.

So knowing I just couldn't buy into Christianity any longer, but didn't want to embrace atheism and face prejudice from people thinking I'd change drastically to some delinquent if I didn't have God, I tried my hand at other religions. I looked into Eastern religions like Buddhism and Shintoism as I was quite big on Japanese culture at the time.

I met friends online who were pagan and learned about Wicca, considering that or some other form of paganism for a time. Worked better than anything else, but wasn't enough for my family. It wasn't enough that I believed in something, anything at all, it HAD to be what they baptized me in.

So I went through a nice long depression(no, not religiously related, though the religious strife didn't exactly help), and religion became a bit irrelevant until I came out of it and fixed the bad friendship that was causing said depression. Religion never really became relevant again, especially after the depression as I began to realize that life was too short to worry about mean people in my life or how much time I spent in church. I was in my early-mid twenties, knew I had my whole adult life ahead of me and decided I could do better things with my time.

God wasn't an issue or even worth thinking about. I didn't want to waste my life contemplating if he did or didn't exist. I figured it was something that couldn't be proven one way or another, that something was out there that we'd all understand after death and didn't care to figure it out.

Then the religious flare ups in the family started again with my cousin graduating from college and becoming a missionary. Now I had two of them on my back. I still didn't think religion was worth my time, but I figured I'd give it one last shot, figured I'd consider it one last time, to see if I could find any real honest, good, logical reason I should believe. Didn't find it and doubt I ever will.

Cousin completely spoiled religion for me with his disgusting arrogance concerning the people he ministers to in Nicaragua. I know not all Christians are that way, but I figure if a guy like that can get into heaven, heaven wasn't worth being in. And if a guy like him could get into heaven, no way could God exist(among other reasons) because I don't think God would like listening to him.

So no, I didn't "deconvert" without a long consideration. I doubted from the time I was in junior high and have been steadily searching and learning about various religions from the time I was sixteen or seventeen and in the last ten years, realized that religion just wasn't for me. Too much knowledge, too many bad experienes, too much emotional baggage for me to believe God or anything else exists.

The way I see it, I'll find out when I die and deal with it then.

Answer 2

I was raised Mormon. Some will say that Mormonism isn't Christian, but I was taught that both the Old Testament and the New Testament are the word of God, and that Jesus Christ is our Savior, which from my current perspective it a Christian religion.

I started to see problems with what I was being taught when I was in my early teens, and had mostly concluded that it didn't make sense and couldn't be true by the time I went to college, yet it took me until my mid to late twenties to be mostly free of subconscious thought patterns implanted through years of indoctrination when I wasn't capable of critical thinking.

For my own sanity I have spent some time studying the history of religion, and I have even read some current Christian apologetics, including "The Case for Christ" by Lee Strobel. This study has helped clarify my position.

I've also spent quite a bit of time reading popular science books on physics, evolution, psychology and cognitive neuroscience. I feel confident that a natural explanation of the physical universe, life, and the human mind is quite possibly a complete explanation. A scientific world view makes a lot more sense to me than a biblical world view. I of course acknowledge that there are many unanswered questions about the universe and life, but I am convinced that belief in God of the Hebrew Bible can only interfere with obtaining truth.

Answer 3

I am a critical thinker and i scrutinize everything before i commit to a belief in it. In fact, i constantly scrutinize my own beliefs just to be sure. On the subject of god i spent the better part of my life trying to figure out what god was, how he worked, etc etc. I spent a lot of that time trying to believe, trying to rationalize the idea, and the more i considered it and the more research i did on the subject the less i believed and the more reasons i found to disbelieve. I still hold a stance that i am 99% sure that god doesn't exist, but i will probably leave that 1% open for my entire life just because i really can't say for sure... however, that is no reason to default to belief.

Answer 4

I'd say the whole problem of evil is what persuaded me.

And because it doesn't make sense that a god create humans that go to hell. It's obviously accepted by most theists that there is a hell, or punishment, but why would an all-knowing god create humans that (god knows) will go to hell? It just doesn't make sense.

Answer 5

Becoming an Atheist was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. I prayed to God as hard as I can for him to allow me to believe in him. Once I let go of that "tragedy", I found that I was a lot happier taking responsiblity in life for myself instead of depending on a deity.

Answer 6

ARE THEY KIDDING? It takes a NON-thinker to be a believer in this mumbo-jumbo claptrap. It takes a clear analytical mind to make the decision that the proposed concept of there being a paranormal entity floating about and controlling our lives or our destiny is the biggest con-trick ever.
ATHEISM - THE ONLY LOGICAL CHOICE..

Answer 7

That's exactly WHY I'm an atheist. I asked too many damned questions. And eventually, the answers I got started to make no sense. Apparently, free thinking and questions aren't appreciated by the church.

Answer 8

Myth.

I have given a great deal of thought and spent countless hours in study. And I still don't believe.

Answer 9

Read the bible several times to try to find God. Found more questions than answers. All you have to do is read the silly book and the questions will start coming like flies to poop. So, no, I did my homework first, ma'am.

Answer 10

After having been brainwashed for all of my youth, I actually agonized over this. I put TOO MUCH thought into letting go of a fairy tale, as I see it.